1.
Culver City, California
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Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California. The city was named after its founder, Harry Culver, as of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, over the years, it has annexed more than 40 pieces of adjoining land and now comprises about five square miles. Since the 1920s, Culver City has been a center for motion picture and later television production, from 1932 to 1985, it was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment have headquarters in the city, the NFL Network studio is also based in Culver City. Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the area of present-day Culver City since at least 8,000 BC, the region was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieliño Native Americans, who held a presence in the region for over 8,000 years. The city was founded primarily on the lands of the former Rancho La Ballona, Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes, and Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. In 1861, during the American Civil War, Camp Latham was established by the 1st California Infantry under Col. James H. Carleton and the 1st California Cavalry under Lt. Col. Benjamin F. Davis. Named for California Senator Milton S. Latham, the camp was the first staging area for the training of Union troops and their operations in Southern California. It was located on land of the Rancho La Ballona, on the South side of Ballona Creek, near what is now the intersection of Jefferson, the post was later moved to Camp Drum, which became the Drum Barracks. Harry Culver first attempted to establish Culver City in 1913, the city was incorporated on September 20,1917, the city was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918, in 1919, silent film comedy producer Hal Roach built his studios there, and Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the 20s. During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lined Washington Boulevard, Culver Center, one of Southern Californias first shopping malls, was completed in 1950 on Venice Boulevard near the Overland Avenue intersection. Today, it has retail stores, a supermarket, a Rite Aid department store, Best Buy. Hughes Aircraft opened its Culver City plant in July 1941, there the company built the H-4 Hercules transport. Hughes was also a subcontractor in World War II. It developed and patented a flexible feed chute for faster loading of machine guns on B-17 bombers, Hughes produced more ammunition belts than any other American manufacturer, and built 5,576 wings and 6,370 rear fuselage sections for Vultee BT-13 trainers. Hughes grew after the war, and in 1953 Howard Hughes donated all of his stock in the company to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, after he died in 1976, the institute sold the company, which made it the second-best-endowed medical research foundation in the world

2.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565

3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

4.
Manoel de Oliveira
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Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira GCSE, GCIH was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some attempted to make a film about World War I. In 1931 he completed his first film Douro, Faina Fluvial, among the numerous factors that prevented Oliveira from making more films during this time period were the political situation in Portugal, family obligations and money. He continued making films of growing ambition throughout the 1970s and 1980s, gaining critical acclaim, Beginning in the late 1980s he was one of the most prolific working film directors and made an average of one film per year past the age of 100. In March 2008 he was reported to be the oldest active film director in the world, and was possibly the second oldest film director ever after George Abbott and he was also the only filmmaker whose active career spanned from the silent era to the digital age. Oliveira was born on 11 December 1908 in Porto, Portugal, to Francisco José de Oliveira and his family were wealthy industrialists and agricultural landowners. His father owned a factory, produced the first electric light bulbs in Portugal. Oliveira was educated at the Colegio Universal in Porto before attending a Jesuit boarding school in Galicia, as a teenager his goal was to become an actor. At 17, he joined his brothers as an executive in his fathers factories, in a 1981 Sight and Sound article, John Gillett describes Oliveira as having spent most of his life in business. Making films only when circumstances allowed, from an early age, Oliveira was interested in the poverty of the lower classes, the arts and especially films. The Portuguese film industry was highly censored and restricted under the fascist Salazar regime that lasted from the early 1930s until the mid-1970s. His later films, such as The Cannibals and Belle Toujours and he stated Im closer to Buñuel. Hes a reverse Catholic and I was raised a Catholic and its a religion that permits sin, and Buñuel at the very deepest is one of the most moralistic directors but he does everything to the contrary. I never say that Im Catholic because to be Catholic is very difficult, I prefer to be thought of as a great sinner. Oliveiras first attempt at filmmaking was in 1927 when he and his friends worked on a film about the Portuguese experience in World War I and he enrolled in Italian film-maker Rino Lupos acting school at age 20 and appeared as an extra in Lupos film Fátima Milagrosa. Years later in 1933 he also had the distinction of having acted in the second Portuguese sound film, eventually Oliveira turned his attention back to filmmaking when he saw Walther Ruttmanns documentary Berlin, Symphony of a City. Ruttmans film is the most famous of a small, short lived silent documentary film genre, other examples include Alberto Cavalcantis Rien que les heures and Dziga Vertovs Man with a Movie Camera. Oliveira said that Ruttmans film was his most useful lesson in film technique, the discovery of Ruttmans film prompted Oliveira to direct his own first film in 1931, a documentary short titled Douro, Faina Fluvial

5.
L.A. Zombie
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L. A. Zombie is a 2010 zombie horror film written and directed by Bruce LaBruce. It premiered in competition at Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland in 2010, an extraterrestrial zombie emerges from the sea, and begins making its way to Los Angeles. A motorist notices the zombie walking along a road, picks it up. The zombie recovers from the crash, and reanimates the driver by penetrating a wound in the mans chest with its monstrous penis. The ghouls have sex, which ends with the first zombie ejaculating black semen, and stumbling away as the motorist sits among the wreckage of his vehicle, in awe of what had just transpired. The zombie reaches Los Angeles, and after perusing shopping carts full of discarded objects, ventures to the L. A. River, the zombie drags the deceased lawbreaker to a soiled mattress, and resurrects him via coitus with the bullet wounds in the mans back. The undead criminal and the zombie have sex, which is followed by the zombie wandering away, washing itself, and going to a café, the zombie steals some clothing, and finds the dumped body of a gang member who was shot in the head. The zombie brings the hood back to life by molesting the hole in his forehead, a group of homeless are then shown meeting at an abandoned sofa, but flee when they discover the body of a fellow bum who had overdosed in a cardboard box. The zombie stumbles upon the scene, and after ignoring a man who is merely passed out, resurrects. In a BDSM dungeon, four men have an orgy, the zombie witnesses the massacre through a window, enters the building, and instigates a gory circle jerk after bringing back the shot leathermen. The zombie then goes to a cemetery, cries tears and blood as it reminisces about its lovers, sly as Johnny Tim Kuzma as L. A. River Shooter Trevor Wayne as Drug Dealer #1 Deadlee as Drug Dealer #2 N. asa as Homeless Man with Shopping Carts L. A. Zombie began production in 2009, filming on location in Los Angeles. One scene was shot at the L. A. River, the film was first released as a soft-core independent feature and then a gay pornographic film at a later date. On January 30,2010, the film had a preview at the Peres Project Exhibit in Berlin, Germany as part of the show L. A. Zombie. A collection of silk screened portraits by Bruce LaBruce from the film were shown at the exhibit. The Locarno International Film Festival screened L. A. Zombie in competition from August 4–16 of 2010, the film was due to have its second and third screening as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival in Australia on the 7th and 8 August 2010. However, the Australian Film Classification Board advised festival organisers that the film could not be screened as it was likely to be refused classification. Under Australian law, films that are refused classification may not be imported, sold, or distributed, Zombie on the 29th of August

6.
Claire Denis
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Claire Denis is a French film director and writer. Her work has dealt with themes of colonial and post-colonial West Africa, Denis was born in Paris, but raised in colonial French Africa, where her father was a civil servant, living in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, French Somaliland, and Senegal. Her childhood spent living in West Africa with her parents and her sister would color her perspectives on certain political issues. It has been an influence on her films, which have dealt with themes of colonialism and post-colonialism in Africa. Her father moved with the family two years because he wanted the children to learn about geography. Growing up in West Africa, Denis used to watch the old, as an adolescent she loved to read. Completing the required material while in school, at night she would sneak her mothers detective stories to read, when Denis was 14 years old, she moved with her mother and sister to a Parisian suburb in France, a country that she hardly knew at all. Her parents wanted their children to finish their education in France, Denis initially studied economics, but, she has said, It was completely suicidal. She studied at the IDHEC, the French film school, with the encouragement of her husband and he told her she needed to figure out what she wanted to do. She graduated from the IDHEC and, since 2002, has been a Professor of Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and her debut feature film Chocolat, a semi-autobiographical meditation on African colonialism, won her critical acclaim. It was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and was praised by critics and she returned to Africa again with White Material, set in an unidentified country during a time of civil war. According to the Australian James Phillips, when making her films, Denis rejects the conventions of Hollywood cinema. Denis is well known for the way that she combines history with personal history and this superimposition of the personal with the historical allows her films to be described as auteur cinema. She is known to work within a range of genres, spanning from the themes of horror seen in Trouble Every Day to the romance. While critics have noted recurring themes within her films, Denis says that she has no coherent vision of her career trajectory, Denis carefully chooses the titles of her films. Noëlle Rouxel-Cubberly argues that film titles are intended to force the viewer to rethink the imagery within a film, additionally, Denis is recognized for her process of shooting fast, editing slowly, which she has developed. In general, she does a few takes on the set and spends most of her time in the editing room and this post-production process often involves rearranging scenes out of the order in the script. For example, she placed the dance in Beau Travail at the end of the film, in reference to this process, Denis has said, Im always insecure when Im making a film

7.
Mike Nichols
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Mike Nichols was an American film and theatre director, producer, actor and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres, Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe, The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols. Their live improv acts were a hit on Broadway resulting in three albums, with their debut album winning a Grammy Award, after Nichols and May disbanded their act in 1961, Nichols began directing plays. He soon earned a reputation as a skilled Broadway director with a flair for creating innovative productions and his debut Broadway play was Neil Simons Barefoot in the Park in 1963, with Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. He next directed Luv in 1964 and in 1965 directed another Neil Simon play, Nichols received a Tony Award for each of those plays. Nearly five decades later, he won his sixth Tony Award as best director with a revival of Death of a Salesman in 2012, during his career, he directed or produced over twenty-five Broadway plays. In 1966, Warner Brothers invited Nichols to direct his first film, Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. starring Elizabeth Taylor, the groundbreaking and acclaimed film led critics to declare Nichols the new Orson Welles. The film garnered 13 Academy Award nominations, winning five and it was also a box office hit and became the number 1 film of 1966. His next film was The Graduate in 1967, starring then unknown actor Dustin Hoffman, alongside Anne Bancroft, the film was another critical and financial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1967 and receiving seven Academy Award nominations, winning Nichols the Academy Award for Best Directing. Among the other films he directed were Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, Wolf, The Birdcage, Closer, along with an Academy Award, Nichols won a Grammy Award, four Emmy Awards and nine Tony Awards. He was also a three-time BAFTA Award winner and his other honors included the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films garnered a total of 42 Academy Award nominations and seven wins, Mike Nichols was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, the son of Brigitte and Pavel Peschkowsky, a physician. His father was born in Vienna, Austria, to a Russian Jewish immigrant family, Nichols fathers family had been wealthy and lived in Siberia, leaving after the Russian Revolution, and settling in Germany around 1920. Nichols mothers family were German Jews and his maternal grandparents were anarchist Gustav Landauer and author Hedwig Lachmann. Nichols is a cousin twice removed of scientist Albert Einstein. His mother eventually joined the family, escaping through Italy in 1940, the family moved to New York City on April 28,1939. His father, whose original Russian name was Pavel Nikolaevich Peschkowsky and he had a successful medical practice in Manhattan, enabling the family to live near Central Park

8.
Russ Meyer
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Russell Albion Russ Meyer was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, film editor, actor, and photographer. Meyer is known primarily for writing and directing a series of sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, such as Faster. Russ Meyer was born in San Leandro, California, the son of Lydia Lucinda and William Arthur Meyer and his parents were both of German descent. Meyers parents divorced soon after he was born, and Meyer was to have no contact with his father during his life. When he was 14 years old, his mother pawned her wedding ring in order to buy him an 8mm film camera. He made a number of films at the age of 15. Even then he already demonstrated a corny directing style and included nudity, in the Army, Meyer forged his strongest friendships, and he would later ask many of his fellow combat cameramen to work on his films. Much of Meyers work during World War II can be seen in newsreels, on his return to civilian life, he was unable to secure cinematography work in Hollywood due to a lack of industry connections. Meyer would go on to shoot three Playboy centerfolds during the early years, one of his wife Eve Meyer in 1955. He also shot a pictorial of then-wife Edy Williams in March 1973, over the next decade, he made nearly 20 movies with a trademark blend of odd humor, huge-breasted starlets and All-American sleaze, including such notable films as Faster, Pussycat. Russ Meyer was an auteur who wrote, directed, edited, photographed and distributed all his own films. He was able to each new film from the proceeds of the earlier ones. Unlike many independent directors of his era he chose to cast actresses such as Shari Eubank or Cynthia Myers, Meyers output can be divided into several eras. Earlier works like The Immoral Mr, the Gothic period reached its apex with the commercially underwhelming Faster, Pussycat. Kill. which would eventually be reclaimed as a cult classic and it has a following all over the world and has inspired countless imitations, music videos and tributes. He followed it with Cherry, Harry & Raquel, which utilized long montages of the California landscape and Uschi Digard dancing in the desert as the films lost soul. These plot devices were necessitated after lead actress Linda Ashton left the shoot early, what eventually appeared was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, scripted by film critic Roger Ebert and bearing no relation to the novel or films continuity. Many critics perceive the film as perhaps the greatest expression of his intentionally vapid surrealism — Meyer went so far as to refer to it as his work in several interviews

9.
Jean-Luc Godard
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Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement La Nouvelle Vague, as a result of such argument, he and like-minded critics started to make their own films. Many of Godards films challenge the conventions of traditional Hollywood in addition to French cinema, along with showing knowledge of film history through homages and references, several of his films expressed his political views, he was an avid reader of existential and Marxist philosophy. Since the New Wave, his politics have been less radical and his recent films are about representation and human conflict from a humanist. In a 2002 Sight & Sound poll, Godard ranked third in the critics top-ten directors of all time and he is said to have created one of the largest bodies of critical analysis of any filmmaker since the mid-twentieth century. He and his work have been central to narrative theory and have challenged both commercial narrative cinema norms and film criticisms vocabulary, in 2010, Godard was awarded an Academy Honorary Award, but did not attend the award ceremony. Jean-Luc Godard was born on 3 December 1930 in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, the son of Odile and Paul Godard and his wealthy parents came from Protestant families of Franco–Swiss descent, and his mother was the daughter of Julien Monod, a founder of the Banque Paribas. She was the great-granddaughter of theologian Adolphe Monod, relatives on his mothers side include also composer Jacques-Louis Monod, naturalist Théodore Monod and pastor Frédéric Monod. Four years after Jean-Lucs birth, his father moved the family to Switzerland, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Godard was in France and returned to Switzerland with difficulty. He spent most of the war in Switzerland, although his family made trips to his grandfathers estate on the French side of Lake Geneva. Godard attended school in Nyon, Switzerland, in 1946, he went to study at the Lycée Buffon in Paris and, through family connections, mixed with members of its cultural elite. He lodged with the writer Jean Schlumberger, having failed his baccalaureate exam in 1948 he returned to Switzerland. He studied in Lausanne and lived with his parents, whose marriage was breaking up and he spent time in Geneva also with a group that included another film fanatic, Roland Tolmatchoff, and the extreme rightist philosopher Jean Parvulesco. His older sister Rachel encouraged him to paint, which he did, after time spent at a boarding school in Thonon to prepare for the retest, which he passed, he returned to Paris in 1949. He registered for a certificate in anthropology at the University of Paris and he got involved with the young group of film critics at the ciné-clubs that started the New Wave. Godard originally held only French citizenship, then in 1953, he became a citizen of Gland, canton of Vaud, Switzerland, in Paris, in the Latin Quarter just prior to 1950, ciné-clubs were gaining prominence. Godard began attending these clubs - the Cinémathèque, the CCQL, Work and Culture ciné Club, at these clubs he met fellow film enthusiasts including Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, and François Truffaut. Godard was part of a generation for whom cinema took on a special importance and he has said, In the 1950s cinema was as important as bread—but it isnt the case any more

10.
Gregg Araki
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Gregg Araki is an American independent filmmaker and film director involved heavily with New Queer Cinema. His film Kaboom was the first ever winner of the Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm awarded in 2010, Araki was born in Los Angeles on December 17,1959 to Japanese American parents. He grew up in nearby Santa Barbara, California and enrolled in college at the University of California and he graduated with a B. A. from UCSB in 1982. He later attended the University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts, Araki made his directorial debut in 1987 with Three Bewildered People in the Night. With a budget of only $5,000 and using a stationary camera, two years later, Araki followed up with The Long Weekend, another film with a $5,000 budget. His third film, The Living End, saw an increase to $20,000 and he had to shoot his early movies often spontaneously and lacking proper permits. Despite the financial constraints, Arakis films received critical acclaim and he received awards from the Locarno International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, with an additional nomination for a Sundance Film Festival award. Arakis next three movies — Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere — were collectively dubbed the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, the trio has been characterized as. Teen alienation, hazy sexuality and aggression, a former student of his at UC Santa Barbara, Andrea Sperling, co-produced the films with him. The Trilogy received varying degrees of reviews, from a thumbs down and zero stars by Roger Ebert to Literally the Best Thing Ever by Rookie, hailed as the directors most optimistic film to date, it made its premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Arakis next project was the ill-fated MTV production This Is How the World Ends and he viewed it as a chance to reach the masses through MTVs viewership and signed on to do the project despite the budget being cut to $700,000. Araki wrote, directed, and shot the episode, but ultimately MTV decided against the project. Following a short hiatus, Araki returned in 2004 with the critically acclaimed Mysterious Skin and this marked the first time that Araki worked with someone elses source material. Arakis next feature was the stoner comedy Smiley Face, featuring Anna Faris, Adam Brody and it marked a stark change from the dark, heavy drama of Mysterious Skin, a change purposely planned by Araki. It received very favorable reviews, with some describing it as another of Arakis potential cult classics, Kaboom marked Arakis tenth film and made its premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. It was awarded the first ever Queer Palm for its contribution to lesbian, gay, bisexual, both The Living End and Nowhere owe their titles to this shoegaze influence, The Living End after like-named The Jesus and Mary Chain song and Nowhere after Rides album entitled Nowhere. In 2010, Kaboom was named the first ever winner of the Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm, Araki has also been honored with the 2006 Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival. In 2013, Araki was recognized by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City with the retrospective God Help Me, Araki has previously self-identified as a gay Asian American

11.
Fatih Akin
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Fatih Akin is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg to parents of Turkish ethnicity and he attended the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg to study visual communications and graduated in 2000. Fatih Akin has been married since 2004 to German-Mexican actress Monique Obermüller and lives in Hamburg-Altona and his brother, Cem Akin is an actor. Since then he has directed films such as Im Juli in 2000, We forgot to go back in 2001. In 2005 he directed a documentary about the Istanbul music scene, Crossing the Bridge, The Sound of Istanbul and it is narrated by a member of a German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, Alexander Hacke, who also produced music for Head-On. In 2007, Akins The Edge of Heaven, a German-Turkish cross-cultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, on October 24,2007, the same film was awarded the first edition of the LUX prize for European cinema by the European Parliament. His most recent film is the comedy Soul Kitchen and he has said he chose this more light-hearted film because he needed a break after making the tough films Head-On and The Edge of Heaven before making his next planned film The Devil. But, he says, now I feel ready to finish the trilogy, in 2012 his documentary film Polluting Paradise was screened in the Special Screenings section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. His 2014 film The Cut has been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, in Akins cinema, the lives of German Turks are a recurring theme, such as their struggles and their confusion about two different cultures. In Head-On, two different cultures are presented, the conservative Muslim and Turkish view of Sibels family, cahit is presented to be somewhat a mixture of these two ideas and cultures, representing a struggling Turk. Akin, on the hand, has never denied his Turkish roots. Akin defended the T-shirt as more than mere provocation and emphasized, I think that under Bush, Hollywood has been making certain films at the request of The Pentagon to normalise things like torture and Guantanamo. Im convinced the Bush administration wants a world war. Barbara Kosta, Transcultural Exchanges, Fatih Akins Crossing the Bridge, The Sound of Istanbul, in Martinson, Steven D. / Schulz, Renate A. com